While the weather held up for the last race of the 2007 winter league, the crowd were out in force with almost 140 riders taking to Cloon to compete for a podium in the 2007 winter league.
Mountain Biking Banned????
Here’s how the riders fared:
U14
Gavin Carroll took his third win in three races to finished first with a time of 1.44.412, fourteen seconds ahead of Epic’s Adam Byrne, who completed a second run time of 1.58.835. Four seconds behind, Kyle Rimmer managed a first run time of 2.02.608 with Rostrevor’s Michael McCann taking fourth with a time of 2.08.003. Justin Ferris finished in fifth position with a time of 2.14.367.
Matthew McDowell
U16
Banbridge’s Davy Graham ran away with first place with an impressive time of 1.33.949. Bikecology’s Marc Potts put in a first run time of 1.41.343 to take second placed ahead of Gavin Kelly, who on his second run registered a time of 1.42.342 . Epic's Greg Callaghan finished in fourth place with a first run time of 1.45.999 while Paul McGrady took fifth place with a time of 1.50.490.
Vets
Again, a large turnout for the vets category. Team Real Cycles/Commencal’s Stevie Davidson was pipped to the post by Club CRC's Stevie Bell who managed a first run time of 1.42.541, six seconds ahead of Steve D. Bananaman Carl Young held on to his third place position, with a time first run time of of 1.53.197, less than a second ahead of CRC's Michael White who took fourth with a time of 1.53.911. Newcomer Chris Hagan finished in a respectable sixth place.
Sport
Epic's Brian Cooney took his fourth first place in the series, his first ever series of racing. Brian finished his first run with a time of 1.35.789 while Derek O'Donoghue took second, following a third place in Moneyscalp. MTB Rider's Malcolm Bloomer managed an impressive third place, a fraction of a second behind Derek O'Donoghue with a time of 1.46.602, while Luke Small finished in fourth with his first run time of 1.51.585 after uncompleted second run. Barry Hamilton finished in fifth place with a time of 1.52.120.
Luke Ireland
Senior
Top three riders shared the 1.33 second in seniors with Ben Mullen coming out on top. Ben took first place in senior for the first time in the winter series with a time of 1.33.680, followed by Rory Beirne on 1.33.791, with Epic's Sean herilhy in third place with 1.33.802. MTBRider's James Burns finished in fourth place with a first run time of 1.36.922 while TC Racing's Dave Molly completed the top five with a time of 1.38.817.
Master
Club Chain Reaction managed to take the top four places in the Masters category. CRC's Michael Cowan finished in first place with a first run time of 1.32.759, followed by team-mate Joe Ward with a second run time of 1.34.958, Fran McGinty (sorry, Ian McIntyre) took third with a time of 1.38.114 with mark Dickson in fourth with a second run time of 1.47.504. Robbert Crommentuyn finished in fifth place two seconds behind mark with a first run time of 1.49.632.
Seanan O'Riordan
Junior
Kendor Management/Epic's Seanan O'Riordan registered a first run time of 1.28.657 to take first place in the highly competitive junior category, with Epic's Colin Franklin and Team Real Cycles/Commencal’s Karl O'Sullivan sharing the 1.30 second mark to take second and third respectively. Killarney's Jason Murphy finished in fourth place with a first run time of 1.32.007 while Epic's David Kennan finished in fifth place with a time of 1.36.211.
Gareth McKee
Elite
A low turnout in the elite category in comparison to other winter leagues, however, this didn't affect the standard of racing. Ger Wolfe managed to fin for the second time in Cloon, with a first run time of 1.22.091, while Team Real Cycles/Commencal’s Stephen Beattie finished second with a second run time of 1.23.174. Ger's brother, Dan, finished less than a second behind Stephen with a time of 1.23.986, while Gareth McKee finished in fourth place with a first run time of 1.23.968. CRC's John Lawlor finished in fifth place with a first run time of 1.30.888...
U16 development fund
As part of the U16 development squad, Chain Reaction Cycles Club and Epic Club have teamed up and will be donating 10euro for every U16 rider towards the development squad. This will enable training days as well as trips to British NPS races. IrishDH would like to thank CRC and Epic for this gesture.
The craic
Elvis, Michele, Pamela and Vet rider Michael White
The craic was good on Saturday night as many of the non-Dublin residents, staying in Enniskerry found their way to a local pub. Little did they know they were going to be greeted with The King 'Elvis' on the night. However, lady rider (who was obviously having a night off) got more than she bargained for. A big thanks to Jer Heffernan for the evidence!
Unfortunately a few crashes at the weekend meant some riders unable to compete.
These included Ewan Doherty, who hurt his back during practice. Ronan Stafford unfortunately has a compression fracture in his neck moments before racing was about to begin, and Bikecology's Stephen Paskin smashed his eye open with his glasses during practice and had to be brought off to casualty for a few stitches. Thankfully, it appears everyone will be ok, and no doubts about Stephen Paskin as he came back in time for his second run begging to have a run down the hill. Guess he'll have to wait for the winter league tables to find out if he beat Barry!.
The Epic helpers!
Pride of place at the winter league was Rodge and Podge, in the form of Richie and and Alfie who kept everybody up to date on all the biking news of the day - never mind any other completely random news they felt the need to announce to everyone!!! Top marks for a great day!
Congratulations to all the Epic crew who stepped it up a gear with their new PA and lots of helpers on the day.
Next race will be the NPS.... Watch this space...
Mr Lawlor
